The name of the terrorist who murdered 3 civilians was not included in the invitation to the event, but the event was presented in the media and by its initiator as a tribute to the terrorist

[Israeli-Arab website Arab 48, Dec. 10, 2016]

Itamar Marcus

On Dec. 10, 2016, the municipality of Nazareth, a predominantly Arab town in Israel headed by Israeli Arab Mayor Ali Salam, held an event to promote reading that glorified terrorist Baha Alyan who murdered 3 Israeli civilians in Jerusalem. Alyan, together with accomplice Bilal Ghanem, murdered 3 Israelis in a shooting and stabbing attack on a bus in Jerusalem in 2015. "Hundreds of elementary and high school students and young men and women of all ages" participated in the event organized by Nazareth Municipality and the Inma'a Association for Democracy and Capacity Building. [Al-Quds, Dec. 11, 2016]

At the event, the project’s coordinator and initiator Saeb Masarwah stated that the human reading chain was a "completion of the message of Martyr Baha Alyan who came out of Jerusalem." He also said that the "Nazareth Municipality supported the project and welcomed the cultural idea":

o"'We saw fit to establish the largest and longest chain of readers in the city of Nazareth as a completion of the message of Martyr Baha Alyan who came out of Jerusalem. We are gathering here in order to emphasize our unity as Arabs everywhere, and we will complete the message in all of the Arab cities and villages.' Masarwah noted that the Nazareth municipality supported the project and welcomed the cultural idea."

Before Baha Alyan's terror attack, in which he murdered 3 innocent Israeli civilians, he had once established a readers' chain in Jerusalem. It is under this pretext that Nazareth and other locations honored him. However, his public legacy is one of murder and terror.

Although the coordinator of the event said that the reading chain was organized as “a completion of the message of Martyr Baha Alyan,” and although the reporting on the event in the Arabic media wrote that the Nazareth Municipality “followed in [Alyan’s] path” and that the event was held as “a sign of honor for the soul of Jerusalem Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan” – it should be noted that the Nazareth Municipality has denied that the event promoting reading was held in honor of the terrorist from East Jerusalem. PMW has found that terrorist Alyan’s name indeed does not appear on the invitation to the event (from the Nazareth Municipality and the Inma'a Association). Therefore, it is possible that the connection of this event to terrorist Alyan was an independent initiative by some of the event’s organizers, and not by the sponsors or the Nazareth Municipality. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that several Palestinian universities have honored murderer Baha Alyan, as has the Palestinian Scouts and GuidesAssociasion.

On Oct. 13, 2015, Alyan and Bilal Ghanem boarded a bus in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood with a gun and a knife and attacked passengers, killing Israelis Haviv Haim (78), Alon Govberg (51), Richard Lakin (76), and wounding 3 other Israelis. Alyan was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard at the scene and Ghanem, a Hamas terrorist who served time in Israeli prison in 2013-2014, was wounded. Ghanem is serving 3 life sentences and an additional 60 years for these murders.

PLO summer camp named after Baha Alyan

Recently, the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs, which has replaced the PA Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, posted "memories" on Facebook from a summer camp that also honored the murderer, announcing "the summer camp Free Sons of Palestine, Pioneers of the Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan 2016":

Text on sign:

"Under the supervision of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs - Center [Branch]

The Beit Anan Sports Club holds the first session

of the summer camp Free Sons of PalestinePioneers of the Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan

2016"

[Facebook page of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports,
Nov. 11, 2016]

The following are longer excerpts of the reports on Nazareth's readers' chain and the PLO summer camp honoring murderer Baha Alyan:

"As a sign of honor for the soul of Jerusalem Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan (i.e., terrorist who murdered 3) who organized the longest chain of readers in 2014 that surrounded the walls of Jerusalem, the city of Nazareth followed in his path and organized the longest chain of readers, that stretched from the plaza of the Spring Square to within the old city and until the Church of the Annunciation, under the title Nazareth Reads. Hundreds of elementary and high school students and young men and women of all ages arranged themselves in rows yesterday morning [Dec. 10, 2016] and sat, sometimes in a crouch, or on the public benches in the city, while each held a book in his lap and delved into it in order to acquire knowledge in a city that every day tries to stand firm against the violence, intolerance, and sectarianism. This step was taken in cooperation between the Inma'a Association [for Democracy and Capacity Building] and the Nazareth municipality, and at its base was the idea raised by the young person from Nazareth, Saeb Masarwah, who spoke as coordinator of the project and said: 'We saw fit to establish the largest and longest chain of readers in the city of Nazareth as a completion of the message of Martyr Baha Alyan who came out of Jerusalem. We are gathering here in order to emphasize our unity as Arabs everywhere, and we will complete the message in all of the Arab cities and villages.' Masarwah noted that the Nazareth municipality supported the project and welcomed the cultural idea, and dealt with the cultural scene and the community of readers in Nazareth. Likewise, he said that this is one of the most positive steps that the city has taken, 'and I was happy today to see the small children, the young men and women reading, and this is the proof that the situation of our people is still good. Perhaps we think that we are a society that does not read, but this long chain proves that we still read.' ... In another interview with a volunteer of the Inma'a Association, Hanaa Farid Zaher, who participated in the organization of the project, she said that as a young person from Nazareth, she sees this chain as one of the most important activities that has been organized in the city, 'and we will organize this chain many times, and we will not be satisfied with one chain, in order to know the rate of our success as young people, students, the cultural institutions, and the municipality, in changing society.' Regarding the importance of the project, she noted that it constitutes a cultural awakening of Nazareth. When we awaken culturally and ideologically, we will become free and will free ourselves of mistaken habits and ideas that are found among us and that pass from generation to generation, as Martyr Juliano Mer-Khamis (Israeli actor, film maker, and peace activist assassinated by a Palestinian -Ed.) said: A rifle without culture behind it kills and does not free."

[Israeli-Arab website Arab 48, Dec. 10, 2016,

Al-Quds, Dec. 11, 2016]

Juliano Mer-Khamis - Israeli actor, film maker, and peace activist, with an Israeli Jewish mother and Arab Christian father. He was assassinated in Jenin on April 4, 2011, by a Palestinian.

Images and text posted on the Facebook page of the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs